


we fell in love on a Tuesday

by jswoon2



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: 5 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Falling In Love, M/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 09:44:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17660411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jswoon2/pseuds/jswoon2
Summary: 5 moments of growing domesticity.





	we fell in love on a Tuesday

_ You can’t blame gravity for falling in love. _

—Albert Einstein

 

**.one**

Spencer tries burrowing deeper into the bed, groaning in protest when the largest source of warmth removes himself.

“You sure you don’t wanna go for a run with me?” Luke whispers near Spencer’s blanketed form.

Sleepily, Spencer garbles out a response. “I don’t know how you enjoy getting up early,” he says, giving his boyfriend a one-eyed glare.

Luke laughs, entirely too chipper for eight o’clock in the morning on one of their rare days off. He takes off his sleep shirt, throwing it on top of Spencer’s head. The shirt is warm. Usually, Luke sleeps without a shirt entirely but given the recent cold front in Virginia, he’s unfortunately—from Spencer’s perspective—taken to wearing more clothes to bed.

“Go back to sleep,” Luke tells Spence, as if the doctor needed to be told that.

Spencer is already drearily closing his eyes for a few more precious hours of sleep.

Changed into fresh workout clothes, Luke quickly kisses the top of Spencer’s head and tucks him tighter into bed. Roxy is quick to take Luke’s place on the bed, supplying an extra heat source for Spencer. Naturally, the doctor rolls onto his back, starfished across the bed and ends up surprisingly comfortable when Roxy puts her big head on his chest for snuggles.

Spencer smacks his lips together and buries a hand into Roxy’s scruff.

 

//

 

**.two**

Tara yawns into her sleeve, blinking away her tiredness. They’ve been working their latest case for three days now. The bad news is, they have an experienced unsub who kidnaps and keeps their victims, gradually torturing over their holding period. The good news—if it can even be called that—is that their latest victim, having only been missing for a day, has a pretty good chance at the BAU finding her.

They’re certainly closing in on the unsub and soon, it won’t be much longer until they find where the unsub has been keeping the girls.

“Maybe we should take a coffee break,” Luke suggests. “We can bring some back to the others.”

“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day,” Tara teases. She has her eyes closed like she could fall asleep at any moment.

“I know a place,” Luke says, starting up the car.

The only other silver lining of the case is that they didn’t have to fly anywhere, so although they’ve been working almost nonstop for the last thirty-six hours, at night they’ve been able to go back to their own beds.

Luke drives them both to a little hole in the wall place, a used bookstore that connects to a coffee shop next door. Luke is more than familiar with the establishment, even giving a small wave to the daughter who runs the bookstore side of things. Her name is Melanie and even though she claims to not have favorites, she puts aside novels she thinks Spencer might like.

“How’d you find this place?” Tara asks, impressed. She had wandered off into the bookstore while Luke waited for their coffees. Luke was glad she wasn’t there when Dan—Melanie’s father—gave Luke the family discount. There’s no doubt in his mind that she would tease him or even worse, set Garcia on him for answers.

“They have good coffee,” Luke answers evasively.

Tara raises a brow. “This isn’t really your type of place.”

“How do you know what my type of place is?”

“I don’t know,” she laughs, studying him. “This place just seems more … Reid’s taste.” Luke smiles into his coffee and shrugs. “Luke Alvez, is there something you should be telling me right now?”

Luke shakes his head—not quite in denial, maybe embarrassment—and the grin only grows as his face heats up. “Listen, we were gonna tell you guys but there hasn’t been a right time. One day we’re chasing down a spree killer in the middle of the desert, the next we’re hunting a psychopath who thinks he’s the next messiah. We were waiting for the right moment.”

“Wait.” Tara puts her coffee down. “I thought that you maybe just had a—like a thing but you and Spence aren’t  _ like _ a thing, you guys  _ are _ a thing.”

“Yeah,” Luke says, hating how his voice gets higher pitched. However, he can’t help if he feels a little excited by their conversation. Surely, he should start driving but part of him wants to make sure that this is kept between him and Tara.

“For how long? How have you kept this from Garcia? Does JJ know?”

Luke laughs, trying to push his cheeks down to hide the smile. “Okay, nosey. We’ve been, uh, taking things day by day, you know. For a while. We wanted to keep things on the down-low just in case. Nobody knows.”

“Except me?” Tara asks, excited by the idea.

“Yeah, except for you.”

“Well, aren’t I special?” Tara sits up straighter and holds up her coffee. She looks ready to gossip and Luke knows now that the can of worms has been opened, there’s no stopping the ball from rolling. Luke rolls his eyes jokingly.

For a brief time on their drive back, Tara remains suspiciously quiet. The extra coffees aren’t quite as hot as they used to be, but the others will enjoy the treat regardless because lukewarm coffee is better than the stuff they’ve been drinking. 

(They’ve been working with a local county PD and their coffee is the instant kind only a desperate man would resort to.)

“Spit it out,” Luke tells Tara, one hand on the doorknob. “What is spoken about in this car, stays in this car for now.”

There’s a glint that appears in Tara’s eyes but there’s no taking back the offer.

“So how many times has Reid dragged you there? Oh, please tell me that Reid took you on a date there at least once.”

Luke almost keeps the information to himself but after briefly biting his tongue he tells Tara in earnest, “Actually, I took him there. Rita’s bookstore is a three and a half stars on Yelp.”

Tara’s face lights up and she comes so close to locking Luke in the car with her, but she’s a second too slow on the draw. Luke escapes from the driver’s seat and leaves her in the car with her newly acquired information. All things considered, Luke considers their conversation to be a job well done.

 

//

 

**.three**

Their newest unsub of the week tortures his victims and prolongs their suffering by administering them dialauded. That little bit of the unsub’s MO is enough to ruin Spencer’s focus while simultaneously making him all the more determined to bring the unsub in.

Vaguely, Luke knows Spencer’s history with the drug. 

Spencer doesn’t like to talk about it and Luke would never make him. Spencer has had enough trauma for several lifetimes. Even still.

“If you wanna talk, I’ll listen,” Luke offers.

On the road they never share rooms, figuring that sharing rooms would be the first giveaway that they’re hiding something from the rest of the team. They’re still not sharing, technically. But Luke invited himself in despite Spencer announcing to the team that he didn’t want any company.

“I’m okay, really.” Spencer shakes his head and rubs his eyes, the same way he did when he just got out of prison.

Luke sighs and drags Spencer away from the desk to the bed. He lays down first and opens his arms for Spencer to follow. 

“I haven’t used in years. I haven’t even really thought about Hankel in years. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Luke rubs Spencer’s back. “Nothing’s wrong with you.”

“I can’t focus and my head hurts and you saw me earlier. Dialauded hasn’t affected me in years but even the mention of it made me useless today,” Spencer says, sounding defeated.

“We’re gonna catch the guy and I know your geographic profile is going to help us.”

Luke feels his shoulder become damp as he holds Spencer tighter. The clock reads midnight. It’s very likely that the rest of the team is already asleep so they can get up bright and early to resume tomorrow morning.

It feels easy to turn off the light and allow Spencer to fall asleep in his arms.

Come the morning, it doesn’t matter if the rest of the team finds out. Not when there are more important things to take care of.

 

//

 

**.four**

After publishing his latest book, Rossi invites the whole team to his place—families included—to celebrate.

The only one still not in the know is Garcia. Luke and Spencer agreed, with support of the team, that sitting back and testing how long it would take for Garcia to finally realize the full nature of their relationship would be more fun. It hasn’t been too long. Barely a week, but still longer than the revelation of Tara’s brother. 

Spencer and Luke arrive to the party at the same time. Spencer is notoriously on time whereas Luke is more casual when it comes to social affairs. Their time of arrival is entirely dependent on who drives, and considering Spencer prefers not to, they’re fashionably late to the party but with a bottle of Rossi’s favorite scotch as to not be totally empty handed.

“We thought you had gotten lost,” JJ jokes. She gets on the processional line to hug the last two members of the team.

Rossi gives his approval of the gift, pushing Luke and Spencer outside to socialize. “Go on. The kids are helping. By the end of the night, they’ll be turned into little chefs.”

“Maybe you should go in there too,” Kristy tells her husband, prompting JJ to do the same to hers.

“Sorry we’re late,” Spencer tells Tara now that it’s become her turn. “It was my fault. I’m just not used to where everything is yet.”

“And where would that be?” Emily asks even though she already knows. Spencer and Luke had taken off on the same day. Reid even tried bribing Matt to switch days off even though Matt would’ve said yes regardless.

“Luke’s apartment,” Spencer admits shyly.

Garcia looks between them, holding her hand up for them to stop. “What? Wait, what? Boy Genius came from newbie’s apartment, but newbie drove and now I’m getting the feeling that I’ve been purposely left out from an important piece of information.”

“You haven’t snooped at all?” Tara accuses.

“No, why would I snoop? Did someone give me a reason to?” Garcia asks. She looks between the circle of friends, squinting at Luke. “What did newbie do?”

“Do we have to start over the bet?” Matt asks, having not been forced into the kitchen for cooking lessons.

“We may have to change the rules,” Emily admits.

“Oh, when I figure out what you guys are talking about, you’re all gonna get it,” Garcia promises. She wags her finger at them, slowly backing away toward Rossi’s house.

Tara laughs, elbowing Luke. “So, how’d the move in go?”

“Well, in hindsight, moving in all of Spence’s books to my place was definitely no walk in the park but I’ve got the newer place, not to mention my place is closer to work.”

“And the clothes?”

“That was easy,” Luke brags. “His one drawer kind of already turned into half my dresser so that was the easy part.”

Spencer looks over his shoulder to Luke and Tara. Apparently, Garcia going to Rossi to rat the rest of them out proved fruitless so if anyone will break down, Spencer is the immediate target. Amidst her interrogation, Spencer smiles Luke’s way.

“Well that’s a look,” Prentiss comments.

“Of?” Luke asks.

Tara and Prentiss exchange looks. “Of  _ lu-uve _ .”

 

//

 

**.five**

When Garcia finally pieces the puzzle together, she buys matching sweaters for Luke, Spencer, and Roxy. Luke puts his in the back of the closet, but Spence takes pleasure in dressing Roxy up and taking pictures for Luke’s Facebook.

“You coming to bed?” Luke asks, nudging Spencer’s shoulder only to realize the doctor has already fallen asleep on the couch.

Roxy flicks her tail, unmoved by Luke’s presence. She looks comfortable where she is, kept on Spencer’s lap. 

Luke laughs, walking around the couch. He considers waking the doctor up before deciding to bring his phone out. He takes a few quick pictures, unworried by the shutter sound. When Spencer is truly tired, there’s very little that can wake him up.

“Last chance to go out tonight,” Luke tells Roxy, shaking her leash.

Roxy hops down, her attention properly earned.

“Alright, let’s go then.”

Usually Roxy likes to walk the entire block and back except tonight it’s cold. She almost runs back inside the building the moment her paw hits the snow.

Luke gets Roxy to walk to the sidewalk and when she tries rolling in the snow instead of doing her business, he takes her back upstairs. Her nose is cold when she pushes up against his cheek for kisses. Luke shows her his cheek and brushes his fingers through her thick coat.

“Hey,” Spencer says, shuffling over to them. He must have changed into Luke’s old FBI Academy shirt and sleep pants when Luke took Roxy out. “Let’s go to bed.”

Luke brings Spencer in close, chasing Spencer’s warmth all while spreading his cold.

“You’re freezing!” Spencer protests, weakly pushing Luke away.

“I gotta take a shower,” he says. He drags Spencer along through their apartment to the bedroom. Spence tries to goad Luke into bed but is met with resistance. “No, no, no, shower time.”

“But the bed is cold without you.”

“Then warm it up for me. Give me five minutes.”

“Or,” Spencer offers, “you could just shower in the morning. There are many health benefits to showering in the morning. I could list some for you.”

“You won’t win by using statistics this time.” Luke shakes his head. He pulls Spencer out of bed with both hands, putting his arms around Spence’s waist when the other man falls against him. “How about we take a shower together? Twice as fast, twice as warm.”

Spencer lets his weight fall against Luke. “That’s not how showering with two people would work,” Spencer argues with a smile.

“We won’t know until we try.”

“We may have to do several trials to test your theory.”

Despite previously being eager to go to bed, Spencer is quick to remove Luke’s shirt, lifting it off him. Luke tries to do the same, all while being slowly backed into the bathroom. Luke laughs against Spencer’s mouth. He tries to get his lips on Spencer’s bare skin but misses when Spencer drops to his knees.

“To yield the best results, I think it’s best that we’re as thorough as possible,” Spencer says with a small quirk of his lips.

Luke pulls Spencer to his feet, intending on kissing Spencer breathless as part of their experiment. He misses, and instead, laughs against the other man’s chin. Spence holds Luke’s face in his hands to kiss him properly.

Reluctantly, Luke worms away, flipping their positions. He holds Spencer against the counter and allows a few seconds to allow his heart settle in his chest. It’s really easy but scary as hell to look at Spencer earnestly.

“I love you,” Luke says for the first time. It won’t be the last.

**Author's Note:**

> It's official, I spent all of January re-bingewatching Seasons 11-14 and rewatching Alex Blake's seasons and I've come to realize that I love Luke Alvez.
> 
> Feel free to visit me on tumblr @sinkpages.


End file.
